Saturday, December 19, 2009

Day 68: Mendoza, Argentina

Ahhh chaos and confusion... either it finds us or it´s a normal occurance here. We woke up and were ready for our bike tour to pick us up at 9:30am. We saw a car with bikes on the back pull up so we headed downstairs but two other girls got in and the car left. We waited for 40 minutes before another car for a bike and wine tour pulled up. Figuring this must be ours, we got into the the car full of people and drove to the outskirts of town where the wineries are. When we sat down at the tour agency we realized that this was the wrong company, with the wrong signs, and the wrong itinerary. This tour was a self-guided wine and bike tour and what we reserved was organized and had a guide. That is when we realized those two girls took our ride with the tour we reserved. At that point all we could do was get on the bikes and give it a go with the map, bottle of water, and voucher for lunch.


No matter what style you get around in Mendoza (for us it was fairly cheap bikes), the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. There are wine fields everywhere and if you look beyond the beautiful fields, you can see the snow-topped mountains in the background. The sky is the brightest blue and the sun was shining pretty hard. Its a good thing we were on bikes because the breeze passing was essential. It took us about 15 minutes to ride to the first winery.

Winery #1: Carmelo Patti Winery
The first winery on our wine and bike tour was included in the package. It was off the main road and the winery didn´t have a sign or anything indicating what it was. This was the only winery they gave us a street number for, which was incredibly helpful. We didn´t get a tour, just a tasting of 3 of their wines. Allison and I used our new skills from the tasting course and evaluated each wine. Our favorite turns out to be a blend of 4 different reds. Apparently people who are classic wine drinkers used to not appreciate a blend, but now people are changing and they are becoming more popular. This visit was brief so we hopped back on our bike for a short ride to the next winery.
Winery #2: Bodega Lagarde

Our second stop possessed a bit more class. Lagarde is an old winery producing some of the oldest white wines in South America. The property was really pretty, decorated with old wooden wheels and large oak barrels. Due to our confusion in the beginning we were a bit behind schedule and only caught the last bit of the winery tour. We have been on several already at this point, and for the most part, the wineries are similar when it comes to equipment. Anyway we tasted 5 wines: a white, a sparking, a cabernet savignon, a malbec, and a blend. All were great of course, but like before we really enjoyed the blend. The guide did a wonderful job of explaining each wine as you tasted it and told us what food to pair it with. The other people in the group spit out the wine and poured the rest of the glass into a bucket. Allison and I just couldn´t bear to throw out the wine we paid to taste. So we enjoyed the tasting and hopped back on the bike to make it to the third winery where we would be served lunch.

Winery #3: Bodega Cavas de Weirnet

Getting to this third winery proved to be a bit of a challenge. The map we were given was not to scale and there weren´t street numbers for the wineries. So we got on our bikes and went what we thought was about far enough and after 30 minutes we could not find the winery. We asked someone for directions and she told us we were mountains away (that sounds better in Spanish). We remembered how awful people are at giving directions so we got a second opinion. Apparently we had gone a mile out of the way and had to turn around. At this point we were going uphill a little bit and it was about 2pm, really hot. We finally found the winery and sat down for lunch. The lunch included two glasses of wine, either white or red, and a pizza. Luckily for us the pizza was massive and quite tasty. After lunch we went on a tour of the winery. One thing noticealby different about this winery is they used the same fermentation tanks as they did when the winery opened over a hundred years ago. The tanks were all the same size and made of concrete. Next we went into the caves, hence the name of the winery, where we saw all the large oak barrels with their aging wine. The caves are significantly cooler than the rest of the winery and are quite humid, creating the best atmosphere to age wine. The oldest wine aging in the barrels was harvested in 1994. Wines this old can then age in the bottle for up to 20 years, therefore they are really expensive. Then we tasted 3 of their wines, including a port or fortified wine. The ports are nice as a desert and we really liked this particular one. We finished up the tour of the winery with a walk through the bottling and packaging area, where we saw all the wine getting ready to be shipped off.


Winery #4: Bodega Altavista

Thankfully our ride to this winery wasn´t very long, maybe only 15 minutes. At this point of our bike adventures, my butt was killing me because I haven´t been on a bike in such a long time. Altavista winery by far had the best property and landscape we had seen so far. With the sun lowered a bit in the sky and the mountains glistening in the background, the vineyards were spectacular. We arrived a little late and they were getting ready to close, so we just went to the wine tasting. Here we tasted a white and then 3 great reds. Yet again we liked the blend and I asked to taste one of their cabernets. Finally after tasting wine all day, I finally bought a bottle. This trip was cut short because I think they all wanted to go home.


Winery #5: Bodega Cavas de Besares
On our way to the last winery of our bike tour at about 6pm, I was getting tired really fast and realized that my tire went flat. There wasn´t much I could do besides get a look leg workout by peddling my butt off. At the last winery, instead of paying to taste different wines, we decided to just have a glass of something we knew we liked, a blend. They gave us a nice platter of nuts, cheese and crackers, and we sat and relaxed. After 8 hours of biking and tasting wine, we returned to the tour company for our ride back to town.
We decided to get dropped off at the park in Mendoza city. This park is absolutely massive. 500 species of plants were introduced into this park when it was constructed; therefore they had to build a large lake in the middle for proper irrigation. It seemed as though the whole town was in the park exercising and socializing. They even had a gym, where there was a volleyball match going on. Some days they have yoga and kick boxing in the park as well. Unfortunately we missed the kickboxing class, but after all the wine we wouldn´t have been very good at it. So we walked to a restaurant for a lovely steak dinner. Little did we know we were about to have the best steak of our lives. The rumors about Argentina are true, the steak and wine are unbelievable. Although the day involved a decent amount of confusion, all I can say is two points for Argentina: one for the concept of a bike and wine tour and one for the best steak ever!

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